The Regional Preparatory Meeting (RPM) for the Arab States was held from 30 January to 1 February in Khartoum, Sudan.
Participants at the meeting assessed the ongoing implementation of the Dubai Action Plan adopted at ITU's last World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-14) and identified priority areas for information and communication technology (ICT) development strategies in the Arab region.
The Regional Preparatory Meeting was the third of a series of regional preparatory meetings that will take place across the world to help identify priorities in each region in preparation for WTDC-17. The first RPM was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic from 9 to 11 November 2016 and was followed by the RPM for Africa, held in Kigali from 6 to 8 December 2016.
WTDC-17 will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 9 to 20 October 2017.
Five draft regional initiatives for the Arab States region for the years 2018-2021 were agreed at the RPM, and they will be considered at WTDC-17.
The draft regional initiatives agreed at the RPM include:
- Environment, climate change and emergency telecommunications;
- Confidence and security in the use of ICTs;
- Digital Financial Inclusion;
- Internet of Things, Smart Cities and big data
- Innovation and entrepneurship
Speakers at the opening of the RPM included H.E. Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, Assistant to the President of Sudan and H.E. Tahani Abd Allah Attiyah, Minister of Communications and Information Technology
"The ICT landscape keeps changing," said Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau." "It is my hope that next WTDC will embrace this new landscape in order for ITU, and ITU-D in particular, to remain an active player and facilitator of these innovations for development."
The next Regional Preparatory Meeting will be for the Americas and will be held in Paraguay from 22 to 24 February 2017. It will be preceded by the Regional Development Forum on 21 February 2017.
See also: Speeches
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